(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
The critically acclaimed debut novel by American Lisa Halliday (b. 1977), Asymmetry, depicts two vastly different people's vastly different lives. In the chapter "Folly" we meet the young editor Alice, who is in a relationship with the older successful writer Ezra Blazer. Soon afterwards comes the chapter "Madness", where we meet the young American-Iraqi Amar. He is on his way to Iraq, but is arrested at Heathrow Airport in London, suspected of being a terrorist (something he is not). Here he is interrogated for hours, and we get to know his childhood, former boyfriend Maddie and brother Sami. The last chapter, "Ezra Blazer's Desert Island Dics," is an interview with Ezra from the first chapter.
The asymmetries exist on many levels in this book: the relationship between young woman and older man (Alice and Ezra); having two nationalities (American-Iraqi Amar); the male role versus the female role (Ezra and Amar, Alice and the female interviewer in the last chapter); West and Middle East (Alice and Amar).
Skjønnheten og udyret
The phenomenon of "young talented woman and older successful man" – or "beauty and the beast" if you will – is prevalent both in conservative societies, with bridesmaids as the most extreme example, and in modern society: Lisa Halliday even had a longer relationship with it knew American author Philip Roth (1933–2018) when she was in her 20s.
We are all vulnerable individuals, regardless of gender, nationality and status.
Roth is supposed to be the model behind the character Ezra Blazer, though it clearly states on the first page: "This book is a work of fiction. (…) Characters, places, and events are products of the author's imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. ”This does not hold water, and I choose to interpret it as an ironic one. commentary on genre fiction.
The relationship between Ezra and Alice, and not least the interview at the end of the novel, fits well into ours MeToo timeswhere it is clearly depicted how Ezra abuses her power. Still, he tells Alice how to act and what to say: "Darling, don't continually say, 'I'm sorry.' Next time you feel like saying 'I'm sorry', instead say 'Fuck you'. Okay? "Alice nods nicely:" Okay. "It is reminiscent of an unusual father-and-daughter relationship – where Alice is (poorly) raised by Ezra. In the interview in the last chapter, Ezra also confesses to the question of why he has no children: "After the fact, I consider my girlfriends my children."
The most disturbing thing about Ezra's character is revealed by his final words in the interview, with which Halliday has chosen to end the novel, suddenly starting to flirt with the interviewer and inviting her out: "I find you a very attractive woman and I" ve enjoyed this enormously. (…) I'm going to a concert tomorrow night and I have two tickets. (…) What do you say, miss? Are you game? »
Vulnerable individuals
With her two passports – one American and one Iraqi – and multicultural identity, Amar represents children of immigrant parents from many parts of the world. He was raised in New York and has a solid education in economics, but is exposed to everyday racism and prejudice at a time when the fight against terrorism and Saddam Hussein is in full swing.
Amar is being detained at Heathrow because he is suspected of being a terrorist. He must therefore remain at the airport until he is allowed to travel on the next flight to Istanbul and from there to his final destination: Iraq. Amar becomes the symbol of how difficult it is to be a man from the Middle East with dual citizenship, especially on foreign trips in the West, where you are constantly faced with racism and prejudice.
Halliday writes so convincingly about Alice, Amar and Ezra that I sometimes forget that it's fiction. They are as if taken from reality: It is the young and promising, yet insecure girl at the art exhibition, together with the older, popular and successful man who explains her art while bestowing on her; that's the one I talked to in a cafe that was both Norwegian and Moroccan – born in Oslo and now a filmmaker in LA; it is the serious female journalist who is reduced to gender and harassed at work.
The stories in the book are unique, although they also clearly belong together. Between the lines, Halliday states that all of us – regardless of gender, nationality and status – are vulnerable individuals. She takes us into their insecurities and then strips them down to the degree that I get empathy for them. Even for Ezra, who at first appears to be an exploitative monster, but turns into poor, on the verge of tragic: He struggles with illness, and in large parts of "Folly" Alice and Ezra's doctor visits are depicted. Halliday puts my prejudice against him to the test: Finally, I realize that he is at the bottom an insecure man with many physical and mental ailments.
Asymmetry is an awakening because it dares to show more aspects of people that society loves to booth. Halliday makes me wonder how the different scenarios would have played out if the characters' gender, nationality and status had been different. What if Amar had been a woman, for example? The author surprises and depicts the life of recognizable characters from reality. That Asymmetry consists of fictional stories, on the other hand, I doubt, because I am left with the feeling of having read true stories of real people.
